The present invention relates to an eject device of a magnetic recording tape driving apparatus which uses a tape cassette.
A conventional magnetic recording tape driving apparatus for use with a tape cassette is provided with various control buttons which mostly have a plurality of component members mechanically ganged with each other. When a control button is depressed, the plurality of component members act to perform a function which the control button specifies.
In the magnetic recording tape driving apparatus of the type described above having mechanically operated control buttons, a control button for performing an eject function (to be referred to as the eject button hereinafter) is temporarily fixed by a fixing member while the magnetic recording tape travels. Therefore, erroneous ejection of the tape cassette mounted to the magnetic recording tape driving apparatus is prevented during tape travel.
Among the magnetic recording tape driving apparatus of the type which have mechanically operated control buttons, some apparatuses have an eject button which also functions as a control button for stopping the tape travel (to be referred to as the stop button hereinafter). With this eject/stop button, the stop function is always followed by the eject function; the eject function is not performed prior to the stop function in order to prevent erratic ejection. Therefore, in the magnetic recording tape driving apparatus for use with a tape cassette which has mechanically operated control buttons, as described above, the operation distance of a plurality of the component members of the respective control buttons is inevitably far apart, so a compact structure may hardly be accomplished. However, the component members are not easily damaged and trouble does not occur since the plurality of component members and the fixing members have sufficient mechanical strength so that predetermined functions are properly performed. The eject button can thus be temporarily fixed by the fixing member. Even if the eject button is depressed during travel of the magnetic recording tape, the eject button and the fixing member may not be damaged.
In order to manufacture a compact magnetic recording tape driving apparatus and minimize the force required to depress the control buttons, electrically operated control buttons (to be called touch-type control buttons) which require a short operation distance as compared with the distance for the mechanically operated control buttons and which require only a small force to be depressed have recently come into widespread use instead of the mechanically operated control buttons. However, when the electrically operated eject button is used, its various auxiliary components become complex and large. The mechanically operated eject button is, therefore, still used in most cases. In a magnetic recording tape driving apparatus for use with a tape cassette, in which all control buttons except the eject button are electrically operated, the mechanically constituted eject button and the electrically constituted stop button cannot be integrally arranged as an eject/stop button. The eject button is, therefore, temporarily fixed by the fixing member. However, in a magnetic recording tape driving apparatus for use with a tape cassette, for example, an apparatus using a microcassette tape, the various component members and the fixing member of the eject button are smaller than those of the mechanical eject button of the conventional magnetic recording tape driving apparatus for use with a regular cassette tape; however, the mechanical strength of the compact various component members and the fixing member of the eject button are weaker than those of the conventional eject button. Therefore, although the compact magnetic recording tape driving apparatus for use with a tape cassette has an advantage in compactness, the eject button and the fixing member may be damaged when the eject button is erroneously depressed during tape travel.